BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Nigerian teachers have said the nation’s standard of education would not improve if governments at all levels continue to pay them poorly and deprive them of requisite training that would enhance their teaching profession.
They made this known in their separate interviews with The Point while reacting to the failure of 3,963 of their colleagues who sat for the November 2023 diet of the Professional Qualifying Examination for teachers across the country organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria.
A public secondary school teacher who did not want her name mentioned, identified poor remuneration, lack of training by governments and school authorities, unethical policies of Ministers and Commissioners of Education as the bane of the teaching profession.
She asked that teachers be treated and paid like those in the medical profession, adding that some parents’ alleged lackadaisical attitude towards the academic pursuits of their children was adding salt to the injury.
For the teacher, most parents do not know the worth of the free education in public schools, noting that the level of indiscipline among students was alarming to the extent that teachers are being beaten for punishing erring learners.
“There is no way this level of failure in professional examination and general falling standard of education won’t continue to happen because our salary package is nothing to write home about. Not until there is a balance between what teachers are paid when compared to doctors and nurses’ salaries, we may still continue to complain of falling standards. Teachers spend five years in school and they come out, recruited as level 8 teachers and their salaries are not up to N50, 000 but medical practitioners’ case is not like that.
“Government does not train teachers anymore. At least, we should go for a workshop in a session, but nothing is being done,” the teacher claimed.
“Another problem we are facing has to do with the lack of appointment of technocrats as Commissioner for Education. You see Commissioners bring up the policy of ‘no student should fail’ and you now see teachers passing students even when they fail woefully. We have to augment their results and do ‘let my people go’ approach. Headmasters, headmistresses and principals are afraid so that students won’t fail. They even make expos available for students during external examinations,” she added.
While lamenting the worsening indiscipline in public secondary schools, she said, “There is no discipline in schools, especially public schools. Students no longer respect us, the teachers. Imagine a student beating up a teacher for punishing his girlfriend. Students bring charms to school. How do you expect us to instill discipline in them?
“Parents are also at fault and they don’t know the worth of free education in public schools. They don’t buy textbooks and even when you give their children to read, they don’t read. Imagine, no student has a literature textbook in the whole of my class. I only give them summary notes. How will they write exams and pass? The school management expects teachers to be the ones to write exams for them. I cannot do that.”
Another teacher, who simply identified himself as Gbemi, complained of lack of motivation as regards payments of salaries, saying that, “it is an injustice to expect teachers to give their best, pass all examinations and teach properly when they are hungry.”
Meanwhile, some academics have called on the Federal, State and Local Governments to overhaul education in the country by motivating teachers, rejigging the curriculum and providing contemporary textbooks and educational facilities.
In his submission, Professor Oyesoji Aremu, a Professor of Counseling and Criminal Justice at the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, said if teachers continue to think of where their next meal would come from, they would not give their best in their career.
Another academic, Chinedu Ayogu, urged governments to take recruitment of teachers seriously, update the curriculum and motivate teachers by increasing their salaries for them to be able to give their best.
